food
Plov taught to myself in the quiet spring of 2020, lagman at a place with four tables and no sign, mamaliga by video call from Chisinau, a New Year jar of Kamchatka caviar eaten alone on white bread. Nothing here is a recipe. It is what got cooked, who fed me, and what that was worth.
18 entries, newest first.
2026
2025
A Jar from Kamchatka
· A New Year parcel from my mother: red salmon caviar and smoked fish from Kamchatka, eaten alone on white bread with too much butter and a quiet toast.
The Market Hall
· The covered market: pyramids of pickles, November apples, and commerce warmer than any ideology on offer outside.
Lunch at the Stolovaya
· Tray, rails, borshch, kompot: the Soviet canteen in unbroken operation, and the best three-dollar meal in Europe.
Mamaliga, Long Distance
· My father in Chisinau walks me through mamaliga over video call with the precision of a man who has catalogued books for decades. The second attempt stands.
The Smoke Corner at Osh Bazaar
· Tin mangals in a row, the eternal question of lamb or liver, and spring sun coming through the smoke while I eat standing up the way it is done.
2024
Honey by the Road
· South shore economics: a beekeeper's trailer, jars the color of lamplight, and the correct way to buy honey, slowly.
Fire in an Oil Barrel
· Driving back from Issyk-Kul at night, I smelled the smoke before the headlights found it: shashlik over a halved oil barrel, and the best restaurant in the country.
Khorkhog, With Fingers
· Festival mutton cooked with hot stones, eaten the only correct way, grease to the wrist and no regrets.
The Wrap at the Counter
· Field report from a roadside counter: lavash, herbs, meat with opinions, and the correct way to eat standing up.
2023
Kymyz at the Pass
· Eleven days with the red Niva, a yurt at the pass, fermented mare's milk that argues with the face, and a second bowl because the mountains insist.
Lunch with the Driver
· Westward with Yan: a shared table, a lazy susan, and the diplomacy of ordering for two strangers.
Chilis and a Cold Cola
· A late Beijing dinner that pretended to be Sichuan: dried chilis, a numb lip, and a cold cola from the glass-front fridge.
2022
The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food
· A 1952 state cookbook from the barakholka, one modest recipe cooked as written, and the women whose real tables never made the plates.
The Lagman Place with No Name
· Four tables, no sign, hand-pulled noodles, and the particular intimacy of being known by your order near the bazaar.
2021
Tea at Minus Three
· A plastic cup on Khreshchatyk, steam against the cold, and street tea as municipal infrastructure.
Apricot Weeks
· A bazaar acquaintance, a crate of July apricots, one proper jar seal, and the superior pleasure of the batch that refused to set.
